Bank M migrates to the cloud

Bank M has become the first bank in the country to fully migrate to the cloud after adapting the Google Apps, a cloud-based productivity suite which allows one to connect and get work done from anywhere on any device.

Google Apps, apart from a 99.9 per cent up-time Service Level Agreement (SLA), allows each user virtually unlimited storage, powerful spam filtering, BlackBerry and Outlook interoperability and is simple to setup, use and manage.

Commenting on the impact of the new system, Bank M Deputy CEO, Jacqueline Woiso (pictured), said they were extremely delighted to acquire the new system which would further heighten service quality and delivery.

“We are proud to be the first bank in Tanzania to fully migrate to the cloud, this is a great achievement as now our customers will enjoy more enhanced security with the highest quality in service standards,” she said.

She said that the bank has always been a champion in acquiring latest technologies and that has consistently been one of the reasons behind the bank’s performance in service standards and delivery.

“Since day one of our operation, we have always believed in investing in the best and the latest in technology. This has been our firm belief and we will continue investing in high-tech with the same objective of giving our customers highest levels of security with unmatched quality of service and its delivery,” Ms Woiso said.

Bank M Head of ICT Vinesh Davda said the decision to migrate away from old email platform is primarily to solve some of the common issues that come with rapid business expansion.

“We have decided to move to Google Apps because of the guaranteed uptime, high security, low operating costs and the opportunity for better collaboration among our employees,” said Mr Davda adding: “With Google Apps, all your work is automatically saved in the cloud.

He cited an example of mailbox limitations, disk capacity limits and backup maintenance as challenges overcome by the new system. The software enable to have access to email, calendar, documents and sites and be able to work securely, no matter where you are in the world and what device you’re on.

The head of ICT said that Google has implemented a multi-layered security process protocol designed to help keep customer data safe and processes have been independently verified in a successful third-party SAS 70 Type II audit to verify confidentiality, integrity and availability of clients’ data.

In addition to the various security controls that Google has put in place to help protect the security and privacy of customer data.

Google Apps also provides several additional security options that can be utilised by a customer’s domain administrators like 2-Step verification, Single Sign-On (SSO), Password Length and Strength and Administrator-based Single Sign-Out.

Apart from being technological superior, Google Apps is powered by Google’s energy-efficient data centres, so it’s less energy and carbon-intensive than on-premise servers.